‘I challenged Reform on merciless plan – however Nigel Farage’s response was worse’
‘Reform UK has shown its true colours after announcing to bring back the two-child benefit limit – which will hurt thousands of vulnerable children,’ The Mirror’s Sophie Huskisson says
Nigel Farage suggested his party had changed course because it had “backfired” with the Tory press(Image: Getty Images)
Reform UK has shown its true colours after announcing to bring back the two-child benefit limit – which will hurt thousands of vulnerable children.
It was Rachel Reeves who reminded the British public why the cruel Tory-era limit must be ditched. “In the end, a child should not be penalised because their parents don’t have very much money,” the Chancellor said in November, ahead of scrapping it in the Budget.
“Now, in many cases you might have a mum and a dad who were both in work, but perhaps one of them has developed a chronic illness, perhaps one of them has passed away. There are plenty of reasons why people make decisions to have three, four children, but then find themselves in difficult times.”
You would think that a promise from Robert Jenrick – Reform’s new so-called “shadow chancellor” – to cut the benefits bill “with concern for the genuinely vulnerable” would include these families. But parents and children at risk of falling into poverty apparently do not fall into this category.
READ MORE: Reform UK plans to push kids into poverty with two-child benefit limit U-turn
In his first speech as Reform’s economic chief, Mr Jenrick said the country could not afford to lift the two-child benefit limit.
With an election likely to be held in 2029, it will mean reinstating the limit – which restricts child tax credits and universal credit to the first two children in a family – three years after Labour is due to lift it. It marks a change in Reform’s position after Nigel Farage last year vowed to scrap the limit for British families.
Mr Jenrick’s decision could now plunge as many as 450,000 children into poverty. At the end of Tuesday’s press conference, The Mirror asked him if he was comfortable with pushing kids into poverty – and what his plans are to help lift the 4.5million children in poverty in the UK.
The MP for Newark said providing parents with support through the welfare system is threatening to make the country “bankrupt”.
“Of course, we care about ensuring that people can have kids and their kids could lead fulfilling lives,” he said. “We can’t just do that by spending more and more on benefits. The country is going to go bankrupt.”
The public finances are in dire straits but politics is about choices. Mr Jenrick – a Tory turncoat who served in consecutive Conservative administrations that ruined the public finances and served in Liz Truss’s economy-crashing government – has made a clear choice.
Because Reform believes that providing children with support – making sure their parents have enough cash to put food on the table or put the heating on – is a drain on our public finances.
Worse was Mr Farage’s response. Asked after the press conference whether Mr Jenrick made the final decision on the policy, the Reform leader suggested his party had changed course because it had “backfired” with the Tory press, who branded him a “socialist”.
“I’m not very keen on being called a socialist to be honest,” Mr Farage told The Mirror. It was a reminder that Reform’s attention-seeking leader is in it for himself – and least of all in it for vulnerable children across Britain.
